Vivo V9 Pro Review: Us and Them

Pros

Does the basics right | Looks quite classy | Can work as a solid second device

Cons

Not meant for heavy-duty tasks or games. It isn’t supposed to either | The price maybe a bit much for a device like this

Bottom Line

The offline market is where it's at for this phone

Oct. 10, 2018Jhinuk Sen

At a smartphone event a little more than a month ago, as the media and the company hosting it mingled before the proceedings began, my colleague asked one of the guys from the company if he was using the phone that they were about to launch.

“No, bro!” the guy said as he walked out to take a call, “I only use flagships.”

This is the space we are essentially in today.

If you have the money, or if you have the enhanced sensibilities that are boosted by your, or your friends’ interest in technology - the odds are that the phone you are using or the phone that you will buy next is a flagship. At least, a version of it. And here we can slot in the iPhones, the high-end Samsungs, the Pixels and by a little stretch the latest OnePlus device.

Now, if we put these people (those with money and/or tech sensibilities) in one camp, the other camp is formed by those who don’t particularly have much of a preference when it comes to picking a device. They ask others who know better and pick a brand that they’ve heard about - this could be the mid-range Nokias, the Xiaomis, Huaweis, maybe the Honors and the Vivos too. But only, if they have heard about it and if a recent blitzkrieg of adverts has placed them in your mind. Hey, Aamir! Nice phone there!

And then there is the older generation who don’t really care much about the device as long as they can do their basic minimum.

This essentially wraps up the Tier I city demographics as those on the other side of the marketing and corp comm teams understand.

There is also another big, big chunk that makes up the Tier II and Tier III cities who buy phones more often than we flagship users do and they also have their older generation. And what they pick are driven by what brand is more visible. This is what I touched upon, briefly, when I wrote the review for Vivo V11 Pro, which is a solid phone by the way, but a hard sell at Rs 26k (may the Amazon sale offer you better figures). Whether you will or will not buy a phone has little to do with the device and more the branding.

Vivo is a ‘mid-range’ yes for us in the metros, but it is a ‘of course, why not! And hey, Aamir!’ for Tier II and Tier III. And the second space is only where its new V9 Pro makes sense. It isn’t made for us, it’s for them. And unlike other brands who might see it as a common explanation, I will not say that this is a phone you buy and hand over to those who work for you.

There is something borderline aspirational in the V9 Pro, but it is not something you, the reader of an article on PCMag, and I will ever be able to fathom. We aren’t meant to, this isn’t our space.

Essentially, I should stop the review right here. What is the point really? But there is always merit in liberalising what you write.

Facts and figures

Launched at Rs 19,990 and selling for Rs 17,990 on the Amazon sale, the V9 Pro is a phone that can pull you through your basic everyday tasks. It comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 AIE processor, a 3260 mAh battery and runs on Funtouch 4.0 OS that is based on Android 8.1. It has 6GB RAM and 64GB internal storage with support for expandable memory up to 256 GB.

On basic usage, this phone will last you more than a work day. But mind you, we didn’t give the phone an intensive workout.

Of course, it has the dual sim card and memory card slots, micro USB charging, headphone jack - the works. The fingerprint scanner is on the back, no fancy on-screen options with this one. And there’s also the face unlock.

The device has a 15.51 cm Full HD+ screen with a 90% screen-to-body ratio and a 19:9 aspect ratio. And it is protected by a 3rd generation Corning Gorilla glass. The side bezels are rather minimal, at 1.75mm, but there is that abhorrent notch. It’s not your fault Vivo, it’s personal.

The screen looks great, but I am not sure if I would actively consume content on this. And that is because I am used to bigger screens. But, as I’ve said earlier, this phone is not meant for me. And that is not a bad thing - this, I will explain again, later.

The Vivo V9 Pro has a dual rear camera set up - a 13-megapixel and a 2-megapixel and a 16-megapixel front camera. The pictures are decent in bright light, they are just about alright in low light - nothing to write home about. It pulls off the basics, zoom in and the details are lost. If you aren’t big about the last pixel on that photo, this will work just fine for you.

Vivo seems to have cut to the basics and focused on the real necessities with this device. Keep your utilitarian apps working and the V9 Pro does not disappoint. But do not, at any moment, expect it to run heavy-duty games. Marvel’s Contest of Champions didn’t even open on this one (which reminds me, I really need to check some other games for phone reviews) and Need For Speed No Limits lagged in parts.

This a good second device if your first device isn’t a flagship. In a space that is filled with high-end offerings, the V9 Pro will struggle to find footing. But that is perfectly alright because this is not the space it ought to be playing in.

But, it’s quite a looker!

What got me happy with the V9 Pro was the sleek black finish and the golden accents around the rear cameras and the fingerprint slot. It looks really nice. It’s got the right amount of bling - I can live with that. And it is such a welcome break from the colour gradients. Hand me solid colours any damn day - I am sold.

And again, I really, really wish Vivo would size down the font on the branding at the back. Just imagine how awesome this phone could look if it was down a few sizes. I would have been convinced to buy this one simply because it was that classy and subtle.

Speaking of sizes, this phone somehow seemed easier to carry around as compared to the OnePlus 6 (OP6) and the Samsung A7, the other two phones I have been using in the meanwhile. For the OP6, the V9 Pro scored over as a lighter phone and as compared to the A7, it was smaller. Now, unlike most other women I know, I have bigger hands, I have no problems with bigger devices (PLEASE do not take this out of context, grow up) - but sometimes it is comfortable to use a device that works just right with screen size and weight. On this logic - the V9 Pro hits it just right.

The online-offline conundrum

For a company like Vivo, the game is offline. You walk into a store and you ask the person behind the counter for a suggestion and he/she pushes the latest device towards you. The experience is logical, you get your hands on the device, check it out and then decide.

As an Amazon exclusive offering, Vivo might just have taken the real market away from the V9 Pro. They ought to rethink this a little. The people who will actually buy this phone are not the ones shopping online, unless it is for that Rs 2,000 discount.

Will I spend Rs 17,990 for this? Maybe. The price bracket it is competing in is not one I would be looking at, at all.

But others will.

There isn’t much in here to convince those part-entitled, part-too-well-researched online users to buy this phone. This is not a phone meant for you and me, and that is perfectly alright. We are not supposed to be its market. Most do not have a budget topping Rs 40,000 and inching towards a lakh plus to splurge behind a device and this demographic is much, much larger than the ones who do. This is where Vivo plays and this is also where the V9 Pro makes sense.

There’s nothing wrong in being a budget buy, and in that Vivo seems to be doing pretty darn ok.

About the Author

Analog girl in a digital world, Jhinuk Sen is Senior Assistant Editor at PCMag. When she is not editing people's mistakes, she is usually struggling with origami paper cranes, ink pens and yellow writing paper. See Full Bio